I know this request takes some time

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:58 am

but if anyone feels led to answer it in the near future, I am sure you would bless others besides just me.

I know some of you have used multiple programs at once with different aged kids. I would love a general guideline as to how you divide out your day.

And I have seen where people suggest that some of Bigger can be done independently, but I confess that I can't identify places where I could assign that. We will be adding in our own spelling, and that is the only thing I expect him to do independently.

I am really struggling with trying to set up a plan for the fall. I am trying to adhere to a MOTH type plan, at least on paper. My boys' personalities do best with a schedule of sorts. Even today my just-turned-six year old woke up and immediately asked me, "can you tell me our day?" meaning what we would do throughout the day.

I will be doing Bigger and LHFHG with 3rd and 1st grade boys.
I plan to combine music [doing Bigger] and I am contemplating combining science [doing Bigger] as I think my younger son would do fine with the content. I would not have him do all writing for it, at least at first.

I know that my 6 y.o. could "come along" with history, too... but I feel like he'd miss out on LHFHG history, which looks wonderful.

So - to sum it up, I am seeking how you have led your family through multiple curriculums on a day-to-day basis.

Thank you so much.
♥Stacy

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:15 pm

*sip coffee*

*cracks knuckles*

*starts typing*

We are usually pretty unscheduled, but we still have a general outline. We are reformed unschoolers

I have done MOTH and it gave me hives

just kidding-I'm just warning you I'm not as scheduled as I appear!

)
OK, here's what we do:
Jake (14) does his own thing. He's starting high school this year, and he's fairly independent on almost every subject. He gets up when he wants and gets started when he wants. He's trustworthy enough to be that way.
Jesse (12...for two more months...then he'll be 13) and Jamie (9 for 2 more months then he'll be 10) are doing Bigger with the extension pack. I made for them a schedule on the computer to print on index cards, and they have a ring thing they keep it on. It has their weekly reading, read aloud, math, everything. That way they can cross off what's done, have their own memory work at hand and not have to (here comes the S word...SHARE)
On their own they do their DITHOR, history reading, language arts, math, and handwriting. We do the science, history, read aloud together. Ben (8 ) is also doing Bigger without the extension pack. He does math and handwriting on his own, but he's kinda my high maintainance kid, so he takes a lot more one on one. (we call him the politician cause he's going to get out of work if he can!

) Greyson (4) is doing Little Hearts, and Gabe (2) is doing little hands.

Our days look like this usually:
*get up
*eat breakfast (everyone makes their own and me or a big brother cooks for the little two)
*clean up
*by then Jesse and Jamie have started their school work, they generally do language arts, math and handwriting right away.
*Ben starts his work; usually math or handwriting.
*We do the "togethers" read alouds, history, science, poetry, notebooking, etc.
*Greyson and Gabe do their work after the big boys are done; or sometimes Jake has already gotten them started or even done the whole day with them.
Generally that's it; then we have lunch and I go to work.

I will take a picture of their school assignment cards if you want. I also made them a reference deck that has maps, math charts, etc etc etc and laminated them. That's been the BEST thing I did! (And that laminator was the best impulse purchase I ever made!!

)

Christy in Texas · Post by **Christy in Texas** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:23 am

pics, pics!!

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:04 am

Darci,
Thanks for your reply!
At what ages did you successfully encourage independence?
Do you write out what you expect them to do from the TM, or do you just give them the TM?
I suspect getting my oldest independent will be the most difficult, personality wise. The second will take off with it when his time comes, I am sure.
I am not looking for hands-off, btw.

But I just see where something has GOT to give Mommy-time-wise so that we can pull this off. I can not 100% direct all the education for four [or someday more??] kids. There are just not enough hours.

Thank you for taking the time to type that out! ♥

I'd love others' inputs as well, if you please!

Motherjoy · Post by **Motherjoy** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:00 pm

I'll post once I get my box and come up with a plan. I'll be doing Preparing with a 10yo and LHTH with a 4yo in the fall.

mom2boys030507 · Post by **mom2boys030507** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:03 pm

My son does some independent work everyday. Most days it is his copy work. If it is not done neatly then it is redone or more is assigned. Many times I am in the room with him but working with his brother or we are in the other room reading a story. He also frequently works on his math independently. He is able to read the directions and I am available to give instruction if needed.

We just started Beyond and Little Hands yesterday. It has not been a problem to get both programs done and have lots of time left over. My younger does join us, by his choosing for history time and sometimes story time. He is also much happier to go play once he has had his school time with Little Hands.

Karen

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:17 pm

I should post at the beginning of this that the inspiration for these came from homeschooling with index cards. I have bought a lot of her sets, and then designed a lot of my own. The maps, some of the charts, etc are PDF files-all I have to do is manipulate the printing size and it will print exactly on the index card! We use the 4X6 cards.
I kinda got my pictures backwards, too-sorry bout that!
All the pics are clickable, so you can click it and see it bigger.

The Math Section:
this holds reference charts and a 100 chart. There are some blank ones for the boys to write down math rules as they come across them.

Language Arts Section:
more reference, spelling list, vocabulary words (current ones-the older ones are in a file box)

The History and Geography Section:
this has maps, mostly.

Here's the Assignment Section:
here's where I type out/print their work for the week, and they can just cross it off as they get it done. I put the read aloud, the math, science, poem, everything on these cards.

Here's the four books together:

The stuff that they refer to often are laminated, the stuff they write on is not. I let them pick their own font for the names (Jesse picked one called "horror"

He's twelve and it shows...

)
I also gave them the option of putting pictures on the cover and they decided against that.

There's our system!

my3sons · Post by **my3sons** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:07 pm

Hi there! We did Bigger... and LHFHG last year, and we had a super year (even with my dear baby being his happy - but demanding -self

). I typed out my schedule on a different thread just to help anybody who might be combining programs see what what happened to work for us. Here's a link to that:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/view ... +combining

HTH! And don't worry... you're in for a super year!

In Christ,
Julie

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 5:45 am

Thank you Julie. I had not seen that other thread. I am impressed with how much your 8 year old conquered independently. Perhaps that is something I can look forward to as our year progresses!

Right now, my son [who will be 8 in August] still needs help in Math, and it takes him at least 45 minutes to do it.

So Math eats up a huge chunk of our school day, and it includes lots of Mommy-time.

Your schedule was nice to see how much time you spend on any given subject. This year in Beyond, we could do the whole left hand side in about an hour. Bigger's *sides* being different, I am not sure yet how this will all go.

Did you do DITHOR everyday? Did you match the genre with the storytime genre?

My LHFHG son will be a 6 year old, first grader, so I am needing to beef it up a bit. I hope we move as quickly through it as you describe, still.

I need to add in language arts and spelling, but that shouldn't add too much time, and the spelling he will do independantly.

You and Carrie describe a different approach to a day's schedule than MOTH does. Somedays we will lose a chunk of time to an unplanned event [MD appt., friend needing support, a call from Daddy to meet for lunch, a bathroom accident that requires a bath...

] and then the day is interrupted. It sounds like you and Carrie advocate resuming the schedule where it was interrupted and proceding to completion, while MOTH suggests going to the next block of time and just omitting what was eaten up by the interruption... I am not saying one way is better than the other - just noting the difference and seeing something I have to pray God to show me which plan is better for the Butler family.

THANK YOU, DARCI!
I am impressed by your cards! When do you have time to make those? I am astonished! Do you do a week ahead? What do you do if something comes up [unplanned pediatrician appts.

]? Do you just cross off a few things and still do some? Do the kids pass down the reference ones? Or do they just add to their own as they mature? Do you make them, or do they? Um, you know you could totally turn that into a home business!

I bet you'd have customers lining up from HERE!

Motherjoy · Post by **Motherjoy** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:14 am

About math taking 45 min, I'd only make son do math for 30 min. Whatever doesn't get done get be handled tomorrow. It may take longer than a schoolyear to finish a book, but that doesn't really matter.

I am working on a schedule, and I've read MOTH. I think you have to make it fit you. First, if you have to make a doc appt, make it before or after your family's 'school hours'. That way, other stuff that is less important gets impacted. Or make all doc appts or outside plans on one day of the week and don't do any school on that day.

I agree that the subjects should be done in the same order, if possible. Its not as important to be clock-watching, but to make sure the routine 'feels' the same each day.

Just some random thoughts. I'll have more later, but I'm still working on plans for next year.

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 12:37 pm

Thanks! I started out with a bunch of sets from "Homeschooling with index cards" and also some from "Notebooking Nook" (both businesses sell at currclick dot com) but then I started customizing them to fit MY life!

I figured out how to print any PDF file onto a card, then I figured out how to adjust the settings in Word to make it fit, and voila! my personal cards were born!

I start with a general outline, then I make each card every week. As soon as it's habit I plan to have them fill out their assignments every week on blank cards. I'm happy to email you the ones I made in Word if you like. Of course, I can't email you the ones I purchased,

but I can share the ones that are only mine!

We are very, very relaxed-which is why MOTH didn't fit me. I found myself being ruled by the schedule versus the schedule as my tool. So for unplanned things (like the whole bottle of baby powder that just got dumped in the toilet?) those kind of things don't throw me off so much anymore, because they don't interrupt the planned out day. We just stop where we are at, and start back up where we left off. When I tried to change subjects as in the MOTH way, I found more rebellion the next day because they had to do that day's work PLUS whatever was left from the day before. Now I get a lot more cooperation because they know all they have left is whatever today's schedule says is left for today. I have a big calendar for big things, and I use a Franklin Planner for myself, but only for big things. I've accepted that God made me to thrive with a loosely scheduled day and its made a big difference for me. I know a lot of people thrive with a detailed schedule as much as I chafe under one, so it's fun for me to read/hear all you ladies who have different ways! It's so neat to see how we can make things work for US!

If I have to take one to the doc, or one's sick or something, we just do what we can and leave the rest. With the HOD it's easier to pick up where we left off, too. There's not much that needs review when we get back to it. Other stuff we've used seemed to require so much review and narration just to get back up to speed that this feels like a vacation most days!

Plus we are usually done by lunchtime, so we can have the rest ofthe day as free, or housework, or whatever comes up. Like yesterday, after lunch, the boys said, "hey! let's go to the Y for open swim!" and off we go!

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:37 pm

darci-
I would love a closer look at your cards. My oldest would love them. I will PM you my email and at your convenience I'd love to see some of them.

I would strongly prefer NOT to be held to a schedule, but I can see where my boys do better with them. Just one more way God is stretching me. My problem with them is that they hold me more accountable. How is that for realizing something about yourself.

But I have to say that for all the things I love about HOD, one thing that stresses me out is that I feel like it is all-or-nothing with a subject. Like I can't just skip one subject, say history, b/c I can't go ahead to the next day until each box is accomplished. Maybe that is why I am trying so hard to figure out how to do each thing each day.

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:39 am

momof2n2 wrote: I would strongly prefer NOT to be held to a schedule, but I can see where my boys do better with them. Just one more way God is stretching me. My problem with them is that they hold me more accountable. How is that for realizing something about yourself.

I know! I have one boy who you can't even mention your tentative plans because he puts it into his mind as a sure thing and then throws a fit when it doesn't pan out! Then I have one that is completely the other end of the spectrum-he balks at any degree of scheduling! I like how you said it's God stretching you-I need to make that my frame of reference, too.

But I have to say that for all the things I love about HOD, one thing that stresses me out is that I feel like it is all-or-nothing with a subject. Like I can't just skip one subject, say history, b/c I can't go ahead to the next day until each box is accomplished. Maybe that is why I am trying so hard to figure out how to do each thing each day.

((((HUGS)))) I know. I felt the same way, but now I just do what we can do. I don't have any words of wisdom, just that it will come.

I will say that I check off the boxes we do get done, then the next day we do whatever we didn't do the day before. So we might take six or seven days to do one unit. I don't always do every single thing in every single box, either. My boys just don't like crafts, so we usually skip some of those ideas. As much as I love HOD I had to realize it's written on paper, not stone,

and I could do what I wanted or what fit my family. That was a HUGE realization for me!!! I used to always be the one who figured, well, it's in the teacher's guide we must get it done! then I remembered I was homeschooling for the flexibility of it!

My dh says God doesn't always use lightning bolts to get our attention.

Phew! More info then you ever wanted about me, eh?

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:41 pm

No, Darci. That is NOT too much info. at all.
You truly blessed me, here.
Thank you!

A lot to chew on! Thanks!

my3sons · Post by **my3sons** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:28 am

momof2n2 wrote:Thank you Julie. I had not seen that other thread. I am impressed with how much your 8 year old conquered independently. Perhaps that is something I can look forward to as our year progresses! Right now, my son [who will be 8 in August] still needs help in Math, and it takes him at least 45 minutes to do it. So Math eats up a huge chunk of our school day, and it includes lots of Mommy-time.

Your schedule was nice to see how much time you spend on any given subject. This year in Beyond, we could do the whole left hand side in about an hour. Bigger's *sides* being different, I am not sure yet how this will all go.

Did you do DITHOR everyday? Did you match the genre with the storytime genre?

My LHFHG son will be a 6 year old, first grader, so I am needing to beef it up a bit. I hope we move as quickly through it as you describe, still. I need to add in language arts and spelling, but that shouldn't add too much time, and the spelling he will do independantly.

You and Carrie describe a different approach to a day's schedule than MOTH does. Somedays we will lose a chunk of time to an unplanned event [MD appt., friend needing support, a call from Daddy to meet for lunch, a bathroom accident that requires a bath... ] and then the day is interrupted. It sounds like you and Carrie advocate resuming the schedule where it was interrupted and proceding to completion, while MOTH suggests going to the next block of time and just omitting what was eaten up by the interruption... I am not saying one way is better than the other - just noting the difference and seeing something I have to pray God to show me which plan is better for the Butler family.

Hi there! I've been out of town, so I just am getting a moment to catch up here. I'm glad my schedule may have been of some help to you, but I realize that every family needs to find their own rhythm in homeschooling. I love to look at schedules and take the parts that fit us personally. The schedule I shared is the one I was able to use the last part of the year. We definitely grew into it - my 8 yo probably couldn't have done all that he was doing at the end of the year at the beginning of the year. It was a huge help to train him slowly to be comfortable using the Bigger Teacher's Guide. I did this just by showing him the plans as we did them. If you could do Beyond's... left side in 45 minutes, you'll be able to do Bigger's... left side in a fairly quick amount of time too.

I only did DITHOR 3 days a week, and we did 5 of the genres. We did the other half of the genres the year before. I didn't match the genre to the Storytime one on purpose, but they did overlap at times. Doing it this way worked well for us, but it can easily be adjusted to fit whatever works best for you.

I think it's probably a good idea to limit the math time as someone else mentioned. That can run independently. I agree that 30 minutes is a good increment. You may want to require less problems if there are too many. I am a firm believer that less is sometimes more - fewer math problems done carefully and correctly, are better than many math problems done carelessly and incorrectly.

I completely get how things come up! They certainly do here too. As far as the endless appointments - dentist - doctor - helmet - eye doctor - etc. I try to schedule them after school time or on the same day each week. Last year, Friday afternoon was the day. My husband can help out once and awhile on late Friday afternoons. He'd meet me at our baby son's helmet appointments, and take the rest of the children either home or somewhere in town (usually Cabella's)

and then drop the kids off at the end of the appointment so I'd take them all home, and he'd finish work. Many times this didn't work though, but I did find that having a day in my mind for running errands and doing appointments helped me put them all in a row on one afternoon, which didn't interrupt our school time. I also don't answer the phone during school time, unless it's family or something pretty important. One other thing that really helped me was just doing phone calls and emails during their "recess" playtimes throughout the day.

As far as our thought of finishing out the day each day, that came from me not finishing the last month of Beyond... one year. That's when I realized that "forward motion" was the goal for me, rather than lingering until every little thing was done fully and to its complete potential. What I mean by that is, I'd rather do something a little more quickly on the day it's supposed to be done and move on, then do it slowly and get further and further behind, having to flip between days then in the guide, and thus not finishing and upsetting the nice balance of "hands-on" and "sit-down" in the HOD guides. However, that doesn't mean this will be right for everyone. For me, I've felt so much better about school now with those few changes... and DRUMROLL... I finished Bigger... on time last year!!!

HTH!

In Christ,
Julie